This October was the warmest ever recorded, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists announced on Thursday, all but assuring that 2014 will be our planet’s hottest year in more than 100 years.

Just days after the US Postal Service reported that it had been targeted by a cyber attack, reports have surfaced that NOAA may have covered up a late September breach of the National Weather Service and its satellite network.

The Antarctic ozone hole reached its annual peak size on Sept. 11, according to scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The size of this year’s hole was 24.1 million square kilometers (9.3 million square miles) — an area roughly the size of North America.